Leo was a Thracian who, beginning his career in the army, became a protégé of General Aspar. In proclaiming Leo Eastern emperor at Constantinople (Feb. 7, 457), Aspar expected to use him as a puppet ruler. Leo, who had recognized Majorian as emperor of the West in 457, withheld recognition from Majorian’s successor, Libius Severus, in 461. Six years later he installed Anthemius as the Western emperor.

In 468 Leo opened a disastrous joint campaign with Anthemius against the Vandals under King Gaiseric in North Africa. Leo is said to have assembled a fleet of 1,113 ships and to have embarked an army of 100,000 men, but he made the mistake of entrusting the command to Basiliscus, his wife’s brother. Gaiseric outwitted Basiliscus and destroyed the Roman fleet. As a result of this defeat the Roman treasury was left nearly bankrupt for a generation.

In matters of the church, Leo was firmly orthodox. Aspar’s influence on internal policies persisted for the first few years of Leo’s reign. To free himself from the general’s control, Leo began to rely on a force of Isaurians from the mountains of southern Anatolia to counterbalance Aspar’s German troops. With Aspar’s overthrow and murder in 471, Leo’s power was unchallenged. In October 473, the year before his death, Leo appointed his grandson, Leo II, as colleague and successor.